Moravian Open Champs
04/17/08 00:56 AM
At the end of the last week, as a part of their training for WOC, a number of national teams made use of the offered competitions held in terrains similar to those of the WOC and giving them a chance to match with their foreign competitors and came to Haná Region in Central Moravia.
At first, two events designated for elite competitors only took place
on 10th and 11th April 2008, namely the prologue (longer sprint
actually) in Prostějov and a sprint at Brodek u Přerova; then, during
the weekend, the international competitors tried on, within the
Moravian Open Champs, a sort of "biathlon" - similar to that which
awaits them in WOC - a combination of a long distance on Saturday and a
relay event on Sunday. The best of them coped with both of the latter
events very well marking short times despite a hilly terrain and, at
the relay event, a hard stony ground at some locations. So, all the
competitors certainly left with a feeling that good results will
require an excellent physical preparation. The best physical condition
was proved this time by Swedish Lena Eliasson, the winner of all the
four events (with 49‘20‘‘ at the 9.6 km long distance); Emil Wingstedt
succeeded to win both the sprint and the long distance (with 78‘43‘‘ at
the 16.5 km course). Domestic competitors, however, were among the best
as well, with Michal Smola third at the long distance and the trio
Procházka - Smola - Dlabaja which performed excellently and was
matchless under the Bouzov castle. In women long distance, Dana
Brožková finished at the same fifth place as the Czech relay A-team did
later.
| 
|
Lena Eliasson
| Emil Wingstedt |
Comments on the last week events, the maps, etc. are available on the websites of some competitors, e.g. Tomáš Dlabaja, Øystein Kvaal Østerbø,
Anders Nordberg and Graham Gristwood.
Complete results are available on the SK Prostějov club website
Within the Saturday prize-giving ceremony almost all (three of each team) of the first Czech WOC silver medal-winners got together - both ladies' and men teams finished second in 1983.
From right to left Jana Galíková, Eva Bártová, Ada Kuchařová (Iva Kalibánová missing), Jaroslav Kačmarčík, Jozef Pollák, Vlastimil Uchytil (Pavel Ditrych missing). Further to the left Luděk Pavelek, Zdeněk Zuzánek (other members of the 1983 team) and their coach Václav Zakouřil.
